The NAACP Debate

A New Lecture: “Anti-Black Discrimination in the Age of Obama” by Dr. Algernon Austin

The simplistic idea that impoverished African Americans have only themselves to blame for their poverty, due to their poor cultural values—a notion advanced by many, including black public figures such as Bill Cosby—is believable only if a blind eye is turned to those inconvenient things social scientists like to call “facts.” Algernon Austin soundly refutes the “culture of poverty” argument by paying careful attention to marco-economic data about long-term poverty trends and sociological case studies about persistent discrimination. In other words, unlike the glib punditry, Austin actually looks at the “facts.”
--Dr. Andrew Hartman, professor and audience member, Illinois State University

Contact Dr. Austin to arrange a speaking engagement.
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[In recent years, the belief that blacks are suffering from an epidemic of bad values and the rise of post-racialism has caused people to question the point and purpose of the NAACP and the need for black civil rights activism generally. People making these arguments, of course, haven't read Getting It Wrong to learn that there are only false racial stereotypes behind the cultural claims, and they are also ignorant of the ample evidence of persistent institutional racial discrimination like the fact that America's schools are still separate and unequal. Below is the recent debate in the Washington Post.]

Why We Should Get Rid of the NAACP

By Jonetta Rose Barras
Sunday, April 19, 2009

Watching the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual Image Awards in February, I found myself asking the question I always ask: Why, in an age of integration, do blacks still need our own Oscar-like program to honor "the outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts"? Come to think of it, why do we even need the NAACP?

The organization is as anachronistic as colored-only water fountains and white-only bathrooms. Its racial focus perpetuates the evils it claims it wants to eradicate, and its audiovisual rendering of America as "them vs. us" abets the nation's balkanization.
Complete statement.

Why an NAACP? Because Racial Inequality Remains

Monday, April 27, 2009
By Julian Bond and Benjamin Todd Jealous

We look forward to when we can agree with why we should get rid of the NAACP ["Ten Things We Should Toss," Outlook, April 19], but unfortunately that day has not come.

The unemployment rate for blacks remains twice that for whites. Yet studies reveal that there is no variable -- neither education, test scores nor experience -- that provides a scientific rationale. In two studies, white employers preferred white males with criminal backgrounds to equally qualified African American men without them. Take any indicator, and a portrait of racial inequality is painted.
Complete letter.

Why We Still Need the NAACP

Friday, May 22, 2009
By Charles J. Ogletree Jr.

In her April 19 contribution to the Outlook feature "10 Things We Should Toss," Jonetta Barras asked: "Why do we even need the NAACP?" Let me count the ways.

Despite her claim that we are "in an age of integration," most African Americans live in segregated communities. The average black child attends a school that is racially segregated and where more than half the students are poor. Blacks make up 13 percent of our nation's population but 40 percent of the prison population, in part because of gross disparities between sentencing for crack and powder cocaine possession.

In 2001, the average black male worker earned 72 cents to every dollar earned by a white male. African Americans have a lower life expectancy than whites, are more likely to be uninsured and are less likely to be treated aggressively for illnesses. Although the Voting Rights Act is now more than 40 years old, public officials still shamelessly attempt to suppress the African American vote during every election cycle.
Complete letter.



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--Algernon Austin, Ph.D.

NY State Health Care System Failing Blacks

Algernon Austin presents an excellent, concise, and wonderfully read scholarly examination of the complicated landscape of race, class and popular perception. Besides the prison industrial complex, black strides in education, poverty rates, crime and other indices contradict claims that blacks are “moving backward.”
--Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Director, Institute for African American Studies, University of Connecticut and author of Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (The Johns Hopkins University Press), 2004 and Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap (University Press of Kansas), 2007.

Purchase Getting It Wrong: How Black Public Intellectuals
Are Failing Black America by Algernon Austin
Barnes & Noble.com Amazon.com
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A detailed analysis of state-provided data has found racial disparities in health care among the three million New Yorkers in the state’s public insurance programs. According to the analysis, which was released by the Community Service Society, blacks experienced health outcomes that were significantly worse statistically in 10 out of 12 measures that the State Department of Health uses in quality assurance, including dental visits, asthma management, mammography and almost all diabetes indicators.
[Read more.]

Employment for College Grads Improves, But Not for Blacks

A New Lecture: “Anti-Black Discrimination in the Age of Obama” by Dr. Algernon Austin

The simplistic idea that impoverished African Americans have only themselves to blame for their poverty, due to their poor cultural values—a notion advanced by many, including black public figures such as Bill Cosby—is believable only if a blind eye is turned to those inconvenient things social scientists like to call “facts.” Algernon Austin soundly refutes the “culture of poverty” argument by paying careful attention to marco-economic data about long-term poverty trends and sociological case studies about persistent discrimination. In other words, unlike the glib punditry, Austin actually looks at the “facts.”
--Dr. Andrew Hartman, professor and audience member, Illinois State University

Contact Dr. Austin to arrange a speaking engagement.
________________________________________________________________________


College graduates from all racial groups experienced a decline in their unemployment rate from March to April--except for blacks. In March, blacks with a bachelor's or higher degree were already suffering significantly more from unemployment than other groups. In April, the unemployment rate for college-educated blacks increased while the rate for all other groups decreased.

For whites with bachelor's degrees, the April unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from March. For Hispanics, the April rate was 4.5 percent, down 0.5 percentage points from March. For Asian Americans, it was 4.2 percent in April, down 0.8 percentage points from March.

The April unemployment rate for black college graduates was 7.5 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from March. The data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the black college-grad unemployment rate is trending upward while for all other groups it appears to be trending downward.

The unemployment rate data for the college-educated is not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations. Because of this problem, it is more accurate to make comparisons of the same month from different years. It's useful to compare April 2007--before the recession began--with April 2009.

The increase in the college-educated unemployment rate for whites from March 2007 to March 2009 was 2.2 percentage points. The increase from April 2007 to April 2009 was 2.0 percentage points. This month-to-month analysis also suggests improving conditions for whites--a decline from 2.2 percentage points to 2.0 percentage points.

The comparable analysis for college-educated blacks is distressing. The March 2007 to March 2009 increase was 4.5 percentage points. The April 2007 to April 2009 increase was 5.4 percentage points. Again, we see worsening conditions for college-educated blacks, an increase from 4.5 percentage points to 5.4 percentage points.

Much additional research is necessary to identify exactly why college-educated blacks are being pummeled so badly by the Great Recession. One idea that can be dismissed is the idea that black college grads are choosing the wrong majors. This hypothesis was raised when I first pointed out the worse conditions for college-educated blacks.

A quick look at the data on fields of study for bachelor's degrees by race from the Digest of Education Statistics shows that blacks and whites are very similar in terms of college majors. In 1993, the first on-line year for the Digest, the most popular black major was business. A quarter of all black bachelor's degrees awarded was in this field. The most popular major for whites was also business with a 22 percent of all white bachelor's degrees in this field.

In 2006, the year of the most recent data from the Digest, it was still the case that business was the most popular black field of study, and it was also still the case that a quarter of all black bachelor's degrees was in business. Business was also still the most popular white major with a fifth of all white bachelor's degrees awarded in this field.

Some people incorrectly assume that black college students flood Black Studies Departments. In 1993, only 1 percent of black bachelor's degrees was in "area, ethnic and cultural studies" (the Digest's category). In 2006, still only 1 percent of black bachelor's degrees was in "area, ethnic, cultural and gender studies." In contrast, for both blacks and whites about a fifth of all degrees in 1993 and 2006 were in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

While nonblack college graduates have been experiencing an improving employment situation in recent months, the situation continues to worsen for black college graduates. It is not clear specifically why this is occurring, but it does illustrate the fact that even in the age of Obama blacks still have a more difficult time finding work than other groups.



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--Algernon Austin, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2005-2009 by Thora Institute, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

NCLB is Not Working

Algernon Austin presents an excellent, concise, and wonderfully read scholarly examination of the complicated landscape of race, class and popular perception. Besides the prison industrial complex, black strides in education, poverty rates, crime and other indices contradict claims that blacks are “moving backward.”
--Jeffrey O. G. Ogbar, Director, Institute for African American Studies, University of Connecticut and author of Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity (The Johns Hopkins University Press), 2004 and Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap (University Press of Kansas), 2007.

Purchase Getting It Wrong: How Black Public Intellectuals
Are Failing Black America by Algernon Austin
Barnes & Noble.com Amazon.com
________________________________________________________________________


The long-term trend version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the best measure of how black students are doing academically over time. The results from last year's NAEP exams were released Wednesday, and they provide more evidence that the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is not working.

The good news from the most recent long-term NAEP is that black students made slight increases in their 2008 average scores relative to the prior assessment in 2004. None of the recent increases were significant, however. The increases are still worth nothing because there have been periods where there have been declines in black scores. In other words, the results could have been much worse.

In contrast to the most recent results, from 1999 to 2004, younger black students made big gains in their NAEP scores. The long-term trend NAEP is given to 9 year olds, 13 year olds and 17 year olds. The black-white gap for 9 year olds in math was 28 points in 1999. From 1999 to 2004, in math, black 9 year olds increased their average score 13 points--nearly half the size of the black-white gap. Black 13 year olds increased their math score 11 points, but black 17 year olds only increased their score 2 points.

Proponents of NCLB, which started in 2002, claimed that the big gains from 1999 to 2004 were evidence that the Act was working. Research by the Civil Rights Project showed that the increase in test scores were likely due to factors other than NCLB. The fact that the gains in test scores have stalled from 2004 to 2008 while NCLB has continued supports the Civil Rights Project argument. NCLB isn't working.

Although black students made big gains from 1999 to 2004, this improvement did little to change the overall black-white test score gap because white students made roughly equivalent test score gains. Reducing the test-score gap is important, but we should also celebrate the black 1999-2004 test-score increases even if they did not substantially reduce the gaps.

Still, what can be done to eliminate the black-white test-score gap?

The scholarly evidence continues to mount that economic disparities cause educational disparities. It seems unlikely that we will be able to eliminate the test-score gap while economic inequality between blacks and whites remains so great. The black-white income and wealth gaps are large. In 2007, for every dollar of income the average white household had, the average black household only had 62 cents. For every dollar of assets the average white household held, the average black household only held 10 cents.

Researchers have found that more than half of the achievement gap can be attributed to economic and educational differences between black and white parents. Other factors relating to the differences in the educational opportunities provided to black and white children account for much of the remaining gap.

The NAEP gains from 1999 to 2004 may be an example of the importance of economic factors. The early childhood years are especially important for future educational achievement. From 1995 to 2000, blacks increased their employment rate, experienced income gains, and had dramatically declining rates of poverty. The children whose early childhood years were during this period of increasing economic prosperity showed the biggest gains in the long-term NAEP. The black 9 year olds who had the largest test-score gains in 2004 were born in 1995, just as the economic good times began.

In the late 1990s, blacks were not the only ones experiencing economic good times. Whites also benefitted from a strong economy, and the white children born in 1995 also showed large test-score gains. The matching white increase in test-scores is the reason why the black student test-score gains did not lead to significant reductions in the test-score gap.

We need to increase job opportunities in poor black communities and see that black workers earn equivalent salaries to comparable white workers. A new Urban Institute study finds that in the low-wage labor market, black workers earn 12 percent less than similar white workers. Until we address the black-white income and wealth gaps, I have little hope that we will be able to reduce the black-white test-score gap.


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--Algernon Austin, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2005-2009 by Thora Institute, LLC. All Rights Reserved.